Wednesday, April 14, 2010

feels like a bit of progress...

Ok I was going to skip today, then I saw my pal Karen did her post so here I am ...

Today was a day of clean hands, but still much got done. Spent time at Echo Gallery putting all the 3D work in place, including newly received work by guest artist Emily Reason. I didn't have my camera, so you'll just have to come to the opening on Friday or wait till I get pictures up to see how nice it looks. But take my word for it - it looks niiiice! Our other guest artists are textile artists Jen Swearington, Barbara Zaretsky and Libby & Jim Mijanovich, and our core members have added new work. Don't take my word for it - come see it! Details HERE.

The other fun for today was going to a Clay Club meeting. I usually miss them as they're usually just far enough away to make the trip seem more optional the later the day gets, but this month they met in town so it would be just silly not to go! It was a great turn-out, with potter folk from all over, including the northern territories! Got to see many I hadn't seen in a while, meet many I had only known of indirectly, heard about lots of cool upcoming events at Curve Studios, Michael Kline's studio and with Tom Turner in town, ate way too much and just in general had a good time hobbing and knobbing.

Back at the studio, I unloaded a small kiln load that included mugs for Echo and the first batch of work that will go to the Tree Gallery, tests for a new client and kiln fillers that were a lot of fun to play with.

new tree mugs - can you find the 'easter egg' hiding on one?
Studio member Rebekah added one of her owls to some of the mugs...

I'll actually have just a handful of new for the opening on Friday, as my big kiln won't fire till the end of the month. But squeezing in this cone 7 kiln will give me a little and gets me much needed tests for the next load. I love the feeling of opening a kiln - like a prezzie each time, and even if it's not the prezzie you thought you wanted, the info is always good and the more you do it, the more it's really like waking up first on Christmas morning!

figured I was testing materials, why not test some new trees?

And then for something completely random ... I needed kiln fillers for this firing, and I had some slipped cups that were extra from a previous project. I had wanted to roll out some tile tests to play with some ideas that had been floating in my head but didn't get it done in time, so the cups became my test tiles. Of course, not related at all to any work I'm doing now, so it was kind of fun to play with - got to see how the underglaze crayons acted at cone 7, learned about some other underglaze colors. Not sure when I'll do these tiles, but it was fun for a test and great for kiln fillers!

Tomorrow: gallery business, drying out clay, makin' a bunch of stuff, having a bit of henna fun, makin' a bunch more stuff, pugging. Now off to see if I can liberate those pictures on my phone...

What goes on here...

Wow, thanks for reading this far down!

Lori makes functional pottery, tiles and commemorative and branded ware for commission and gallery sales and teaches beginner-intermediate wheel classes and private custom workshops. My studio is located at The Village Potters in the River Arts District in Asheville, and that's where you'll also find me teaching classes. Learn more about that at www.thevillagepotters.com.